Showtime And Oliver Stone Partner On Secret History Of America

As Americans, do we really know and understand our shared and complicated history? How do we recall the small details and forgotten players that influenced some of the biggest events from America’s past? Will our children actually get the “real” or whole story from reading history books? And how will it affect the future of our country?

Academy Award®-winning director Oliver Stone is creating and executive producing a new, ten episode documentary series entitled OLIVER STONE’S SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICA, which will premiere on SHOWTIME in 2010. The announcement was made today by Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

“We are very happy that Oliver Stone has chosen SHOWTIME as the home for his provocative series about key unknown moments of American history,” said Greenblatt. “Not only has his name become synonymous with visionary filmmaker, but Oliver is also a fascinating storyteller always striving to shed new light on the human experience. His continuing curiosity about real events of the 20th Century has now led him to a documentary series unlike any other, which is why it’s perfect for our premium audience.”

Narrated by Stone, the new one-hour series will feature episodes that focus on human events, that at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America’s unique and complex history over the last 60 years. Stone and a small group of historians and archivists have meticulously combed through the national archives of the U.S., Russia, South Africa, England, and Japan in search of papers, letters, memoranda, film, and photographs to assist in their documentation of unknown historical figures and events that have rarely, if ever, been revealed. Topics range from President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to the origins and reasons for the Cold War with the Soviet Union, to the fierce struggle between war and peace in America’s national security complex. Newly discovered facts and accounts from the Kennedy administration, the Vietnam War, and the great changes in America’s role in the world since the fall of Communism in the 1980s will be presented.

Oliver Stone, who has worked on the series for almost 2 years, said today, “Through this epic 10-hour series, which I feel is the deepest contribution I could ever make in film to my children and the next generation, I can only hope a change in our thinking will result.”